Infinity Adventures
by number970910
Summary: A Batarian Pirate fleet stumbles upon a dorment relay in a previously unknown system. What's more interesting is that they find a world made of glass. Let's see what unfolds next.
1. Chapter 1

**Providence: Chapter 1**

**It's my first Fan fiction and crossover. I used OC as protagonist, but he is not a Hero or a vital character in original Halo. He will have his role in the crossover. Basically the crossover would be based on a UNSC soldier's point of view. He won't change or hinder MC or Shepard's role or overshadow them by being better. He will have interaction with them but just as a minor companion not anything vital to them. MC and Shepard will do their job in the background, my OC will just support them with minor help. The "Apollo Class frigate" I used here is from fanon. But the time line was from 26****th**** century. So I got raid of advanced Tech to match my timeline. It's my first update so be nice.**

**Squad = 09-10 soldiers (Staff/Sergeant)**

**Platoon = 16-44 soldiers (Lieutenant with NCO second in command)**

**Company = 62-190 soldiers (captain with first sergeant)**

**Battalion = 300-1000 soldiers (lieutenant Colonel with command sergeant)**

**New Ships in UNSC…..**

UNSC Apollo-class frigates were built eight years after the H-C war. These frigates were the only lower class ships that were made after the Grate War, but because of not being effective in acceptable numbers they were only used in base defense, Scout, troop deployment or as immediate response ship. At 829m length and 120m width Apollo-class frigates are the largest frigates UNSC has ever built, although against their covenant counterparts they were almost useless but they served their purpose in the war. These frigates were built to engage as anti-star fighter or troop transport so it was used only in close range. With numerous PDG platform and heavy armor they were a nightmare to any star fighter of any faction. But their main guns are so weak that if they go even against a Paris-class frigate head on they will have to go under heavy repairs regardless of the result. During war these ships were assigned in patrol or scouting missions because of their impressive maneuverability and speed. Apollo-Class frigates were armed with three light MAC, four side-mounted anti-amour heavy auto-cannon, a crap load of point-defense turrets and missiles turrets, fourteen archer missile pods and forty-six general purpose Machine Guns. These frigates have a reputation of being highly maneuverable and fast compared to other ships its size or even smaller destroyers. But due to high resource cost and not being effective as much as other frigates, most of these ships were mothballed till any large conflict. UNSC only assigned a portion of its original number in active duty. It has advance communication system, which can contact to base significant less amount of time. It can also contact other ships inside the slip-stream.

**Story Start:**

**Chapter 1:**

The Dread of Night is an Apollo-class frigate; it was one of the first Apollo-class frigates that came out of the factory. At twelve years of service it saw through the highest number of conflicts any other ships of its generation in UNSC. Served by two veteran and wealthy captains it went under a lot of upgrades, making it the strongest Apollo-class Frigate. Its main gun was refitted with a twin MAC and four archer pods were replaced with plasma torpedo pods. It is also one of the few frigates that have shields. Right now under Captain Nathan Cromwell it is serving as a scout and investigation ship in 37th fleet of the UNSC. The 37th fleet was assigned to defend a recently colonized agricultural planet named New Hope. Admiral Flitch Lester is the one who commands the fleet. He was forced to come out of retirement few months ago by Lord Hood's request. Apparently he was one of the officers who had a key role in diminishing the Covenant-Remnant.

New Hope is a borderline planet founded only five years ago. So with population of barely 250 thousand, it's still underdeveloped. Most of its citizens were refugees of H-C war who were relocated by the UNSC. New Hope is a completely new planet UNSC has colonized after the Great War. Although before the war a few ships went missing in this sector. But when the insurrectionists disbanded nothing like that happened. UNSC doesn't actually assign any military fleet in colonies these types but being positioned almost outside The UNSC area and its immediate response zone they assigned a fleet of twenty ships to hold off any aggressors long enough to evacuate or secure the civilians. It has a small multipurpose space station that serves as its main planetary defense, docking and refueling station. New Hope has ten thousand active ground forces and only a few hundred aerial units as support. So overall this planet is insignificant compare to even other underdeveloped colonies. But being the first in a new sector and the fifth largest planet in UNSC possession, this planet has a lot of potential. So UNSC is starting to spend a lot of credits on this planet. Half of the 37th fleet's ships were assigned to search for mine-able asteroids and chart this sector of the galaxy. Even though New Hope was colonized five years ago its neighboring solar systems were not charted until recently.

24 hour ago planet New Hope's space station Far Watch's long range sensors detected an energy spike on a star-system thirty light years away from its position. The energy spike was short lived but after it dimmed down two faint energy sign was detected, Far Watch's crew confirmed that those energy was definitely from two ships, which seems to appear without any slip-space rupture. But the energy signature was nothing like anything they ever encountered before. The Far Watch confirmed those were from two ships. Worst of all a few hours after those two ships appeared a really large but almost same energy signature came into existence. The energy level was through the roof, the Far Watch immediately went on High Alert. The High Com was alerted immediately. Everyone thought that the energy was from a forerunner construct, but almost all the forerunner experts in New Hope denied that possibility. Few hours after that, the Scientists confirmed that that object was not a ship, instead that could either be a large space station or any other construct. The Dread of Night and two Sister frigates named 'UNSC Ocean's Blue' and 'UNSC Lush forest' and a stealth prowler named 'UNSC Lucky Me' were ordered to investigate the system and return as soon as possible. The High Com was sending reinforcements but it would still take another 24 hours.

The ships crews were anxious; that star-system was rendered unsafe when the covenant-remnant was still active. After the war against them UNSC had cleared the space. Being at the edge of its territory the UNSE gives a patrol run here once in a long while. It is possible for any pirate group to set up a temporary base there. But that does not explain the appearance of that super powered construct. The dread of Night was ordered to inform the 37th fleet as soon as possible.

Inside The Dread of Night, Commander Nathan was sitting in his Command chair seemingly bored out of his mind. He has an unusual combination of black hair and blue eyes with tanned skin, he has an oval shaped face with no visible scars which was also unusual even compared to a civilian. He was wearing grey colored UNSC navy uniform with a few badges on his shoulders and chest. Fleet-Admiral Flitch Lester of 37th fleet personally assigned him on this mission. Captain Nathan is a young officer, being from a military family, he had to work less hard to get a ship of his own. Many of his family rivals say that his father paid for that ship. While actually UNSC started to build a lot of new ships past few years, so they needed officers to run them. Veteran officers were not enough to fill all posts. So when Nathan Cromwell got promoted to Captain he was immediately assigned to the Captain less ship. He was the commander of his previous ship before getting promotion. But for assaulting an officer he was demoted to commander three days after he got his ship and was assigned in New Hope. He derived from an insurrectionist family which was responsible for killing a lot of UNSC personnel before the H-C War. But when the Covenant attacked the UNSC, seeing a greater danger, His family surrendered to UNSC and provided support in H-C war in exchange of general pardon. Since then his family was always on the front-line of any skirmish. Although they served with loyalty for almost fifty years they were still shunned for their action before H-C War. So it wasn't a surprise when he got assigned in New Hope as punishment.

"Andy, are we there yet? I'm getting board sitting here all day." Commander Nathan groaned. "My back hurts"

"You have been sitting here only for two hours, sir. That hardly compares to a full day" said the AI with a sigh "you can always go to your room and take a nap, you know." Andy is the ship board AI of the Dread of Night. He was assigned in this ship six years agro right after its previous AI got decommissioned. He was an average smart AI, who was almost at his middle age.

"I know, but wouldn't it be against protocol for an officer to leave his post" Nathan nodded his head sideways with mock seriousness, "besides I am the commanding officer in this vessel 'who' could run the ship while I'm gone" making some hand gesture.

Suddenly before the AI could answer, the XO Lt. Commander Catharine Lester snapped with extremely pissed off look in her face, "OH MY GOD, COMMANDER IF YOU WANT TO GO TO YOUR ROOM, JUST GO! STOP BUGGING ANDY, I WILL TAKE CARE OF THE BRIDGE" she didn't mean to snap but the captain's constant complaining was getting on her head. Commander Nathan maybe the commanding officer but being more experienced in commanding post and being the previous commander of the Dread of Night she has more influence in the ship. She was demoted to LT. Commander for assaulting a civilian while on shore leave. When asked why she attacked that person she said that the civilian made a rude comment on her, but unfortunately she could not provide any proof or witness on her side. She and Commander Nathan were neighbors and childhood friends, they both graduated from the same academy but Commander Nathan skipped a year before joining the UNSC navy. Lt. Commander Catharine Lester is the niece of Admiral Flitch Lester. Being from a wealthy, prestigious and famous family she was a proud person and she also had a reputation of being unforgiving. The Demotion and being court marshaled was a huge blow for her pride. So her family and friends were not surprised when a few months later that civilian and a few of his friends went missing and never to be seen again. Almost everyone who knew her figured out what happened but couldn't do anything simply because they also didn't find any proof. She was reassigned in The Dread of Night when 37th fleet was assembled.

37th fleet was actually recently mobilized UNSC fleet to guard the New Hope. New Hope was previously protected by a mercenary fleet until two months ago when the 37th fleet was assembled. Most of this fleets crews either came out of retirement, new recruits or court marshaled UNSC personnel. No captain would be happy to be assigned in a planet that has no sensible value.

"Alright, Lieutenant Commander, it seems that you have made your point." Commander said with a serious tone, "I shall leave the post under your command, don't disappoint me or I will put you in The Attitude Adjustment Room" the whole crew sweat dropped.

"Jus... Just go to your Cabin, Commander. I will take care of the bridge for you" said Commander Catharine with a heavy sigh.

"All right, be a good girl and don't break my ship. It's my only way to get out of that shit-hole of a planet." said the commander walking to his cabin with an evil chuckle. "And don't forget to scan the system when we get out"

"Of course Commander, but DON'T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD BE IN THE BRIDGE WHEN WE GET OUT" shouted Catharine.

"Yah, yah just call me when you need" Said the commander hurrying up without turning around.

"That smudge little asshole. When I get promoted, I will sure make him pay." Catherine thought to her self with an unusually wicked smile in her face "Hey, Andy…." She called the AI.

"Do you need something Commander?"

"When are we leaving slip-space?"

"In about an hour, Ma'am"

"Hmmm…., contact the other ships. Tell them to confirm their weapon and communication systems"

"Aren't you being a bit paranoid?"

"If we meet friendly factions then yes, but can't be too sure can we?" Said the commander Catharine dismissing the conversation "Lieutenant Raul, tell me about those ships again, please"

"Yes ma'am. Far Watch's Sensors showed that, by energy signature one of those ships that appeared is less that fifty percent larger than a frigate, we are considering it to be a large destroyer and the other one is almost two times larger than a prowler. And the space station is at least fifteen kilometers long"

"Are they sure it's not a forerunner construct, even so why would they send a few frigates against a station that size"

"Not likely ma'am. Its energy emission is nothing familiar. Besides they are not even sure if it's a station, its energy level is way too high for it to be. It is emitting energy almost half a quarter of the forerunner ship that powers The Ascended High Charity. Didn't the commander brief you before we left, ma'am?"

"Yet another reason to kill him" Catharine thought to herself in a frown. Few years after the covenant-remnant dissolved the Covenant-Separatists reformed the Neo-Covenant and started to build another Space Station like High Charity. They made almost an exact replica of the station but in a smaller scale. At 219 kilometer of diameter the station was still a monster compare to other covenant or UEG made stations. It was named The Ascended High charity. This station was also run on a forerunner ship's energy. And if someone can build a station that can produce energy which could be compared with a forerunner machine no doubt it should be really strong. Even now almost twenty years after the Great War none of UNSC or Covenant Scientist invented any power generator that can be compared with the forerunners; all they did is just recreate forerunner Tech. Her mouth started to get sour. If these ships turn out to be new alien race with hostile intension she didn't want to think what would happen. The UNSC still didn't recover from the H-C war. Yes, they did upgrade their military Techs but their ship number isn't even half of it was before. They may win small battles but they certainly are not prepared for another Human-Covenant like war.

"Commander Nathan Cromwell is an ASS-HOLE. That's why he didn't brief me about the mission. Now tell me if the object could be a weapon of some sort or not" said the Lt. Commander with an extremely calm and clear voice.

"That was an offensive Noun to put against a higher rank officer, ma'am. You should be more carefully." Andy's voiced chimed through the speakers

"What's your problem? He isn't here" Catharine growled

"Admiral Lester specifically told me to monitor your language, and remind you of the consequences"

"Lt. Raul please carry on" the Lt. commander gritted her teeth to avoid any more curses.

"Not sure if it could be a weapon, ma'am?" the Lt. Sweat dropped "But I think it's not. No sane military would leave a super weapon in an unknown territory. Besides it seems that the object is shielded, using shields on weapons are useless, because it would have to disengage its shield while firing. And no-one tows a super weapon in battlefield. Besides even forerunner's never made weapons that has shields"

"Hmm… I see. All right, carry on lieutenant. Andy, inform me fifteen minutes before we leave the slip-space. I will be in my room" said the Lt. Commander getting up from her chair.

"Of course commander"

"And send the mission briefing in my data-pad"

**A few hours later**

"Lt. Commander Catharine, we are fifteen minutes away from leaving slip-space. You ordered me to notify you." The AI's voice could be heard through the speaker.

"All right, I'll be there shortly. See if the commander would be in the bridge." said Catherine getting up from her bed. Five minutes later she entered the bridge.

"Lieutenant Raul, contact the "Lucky Me."

"Yes, commander"

"Get the shields and weapon systems online. Order all personnel to be prepared to leave slip-space."

All the internal speakers of the Dread of Night chimed altogether.

"This is UNSC ship board AI Andy ordering all UNSC personnel. We are leaving Slip-space in approximately eight minutes. Please be advised to take all necessary safety measures"

For the next few minutes the whole crew of the Dread of Night came alive. All of them started to prepare to leave slip-space. Another few minutes later when all the commotion died down the Lt. Commander started to give orders to the crew.

"Andy, where is the Commander." she said with an annoyed voice

"The commander said not to call him if there's no emergency." said Andy "We are leaving slip-space in three minutes."

"Hmm… tell the 'Lucky Me' to engage stealth. And order all ships to follow after us"

"Yes commander."

**There goes the 1****st**** chapter. Thanks for reading. 2****nd**** one will be up in a weak. I will try to make space battles as realistic as I can, ground battles won't come up soon. So please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:  
Two Day Ago:

The "Spirit's Intention" was a Turian Cruiser. It was one of the best and expensive cruisers of its time. It was so advanced that the company that built it said it could go up against a dreadnaught and survive until it overheats. But when tested though, it didn't actually show that good of performance, but it did survive longer than any other cruisers that were recorded. Its main gun was so strong that it was considered a mini-dreadnaught. In one on one fight it could destroy any ship that is not a dreadnaught. But being slower and less maneuverable than other cruisers in close range it wasn't much of a threat. So a few years later when cheaper and more effective ships were manufactured, which were not necessarily stronger but had the numbers advantage, it got discontinued, only a few cruisers this type were left now.

A few years ago The "Spirits Intention" fell into a pirate ambush while patrolling and got captured. Seeing its capability and hearing about its reputation the pirate leader refitted and used it as his command ship. Since than that pirate fleet became a nightmare to any merchant fleet that has trade route in their territory. The Turian Hierarchy sent anything from navy fleet to mercenary fleet to destroy that ship, they even put a large bounty on its head but it was in vane, until today. The batarian Captain of the "Spirit's Intention" was furious. They ambushed a mining fleet in Aethon Cluster's Esori star system. The mining fleet was supposed to carry a massive cache of Element Zero. But it turned out as a ploy by The Eclipse mercenaries. At least twenty frigates and eight cruisers emerged from planet Kailo to capture them. Of course ten against twenty eight isn't a fair match but it wouldn't have been a problem to leave the system via Mass Relay if another ten turian ships were not waiting for them. By the time they figured out about the turians they already lost a cruiser and three frigates. Going against them with six damaged ships did not seem like a good idea back then. They immediately engaged their FTL to Satu Arrd .But they lost another four ships while trying to run away. When they reached Satu Arrd they figured out it was a mistake to come straight here when their sensors picked up at least twenty FTL transmissions to this system. So with low fuel they did only thing they thought to get away from the enemy, they started to jump to the farthest unknown star system possible for their ships. It was dangerous to empty their fuel on an unknown system because there might not be any possible way to find fuel there. But minerals are always present in any star system. It might be hard to collect them but not impossible.

"Captain, we reached our destination. And we are out of fuel." Shouted a batarian lieutenant to Captain Cacia

"Scan the system for any usable minerals, keep the sensors active to detect any FTL transmission." ordered the Captain. The deck of the ship flurried into activity. This might be a pirate ship but all of the ship crew was veteran officers, so they knew what they have to do. "Lt. Chaza, Damage report"

"Sir, two of our main thrusters is damaged, one of them is currently online but the other is out of order. We have minor hall breach on 3rd and 2nd deck. One of Our Frigate Mass Accelerator Guns is offline but our Cruiser MA gun is functional. Our life-support system is undamaged; Shield generator is damaged so it can't produce more than 70% of energy. We need to vent heat to do another FTL transmission. But we don't have enough fuel to go inside a planets atmosphere and get out." The Lt. read the reports to the captain with a worried look.

"Crew casualties"

"We have 13 dead and 26 injured in 2nd deck. 2 dead and 6 injured in 3rd. 6 of injured crew are critical the rest are either minor or medium."

"What about the Frigate" the captain said with no emotion

"The Luna Moth has relatively less damage, with minor hall breach. Its thrusters are intact. They said they have enough fuel to mine for minerals, and they can use FTL few more times."

"Hmm. Lt. Guanz did the scanners picked up any planet with mine-able mineral?" asked the captain getting up from his chair.

"Positive sir, But we may not need to excavate any planets" said Lieutenant Guanz with

"Why is that lieutenant?" asked the captain with a curious voice

"I believe the scanners have detected a fuel station around the fifth planet of this system. It's possible that there could be fuel in it"

"What! That can't be possible. This system is not charted nor it's habitable, there can't be any station here." The captain nodded his face dismissing the idea with frustration.

"Well sir it's not a station…..but more like a Fuel Tank." said the lieutenant. "Sensor's detected radiation around the object which matches our fuel radiation"

"Hmm….I see. Tell the Luna Moth to Investigate and bring back anything they find.' We will be waiting here."

"Transmitting mission order to Luna Moth right away"

Upon receiving the transition the Frigate started to FTL jumped towards the object. A few minutes later the frigate appeared near the object. Another few minutes later a small Kodiak came out of the ship and started to orbit around the tank and started transmitting data about its findings to The Luna Moth. The captain of the Luna Moth was curious, the object looked really old, Hundreds of years maybe. The object was made of three cylinders joint together side by side, on top side of the object was a platform which can easily stack two Cruisers. Two of the cylinders ware damaged which explains the leaked fuel like substance. It could be that this object was a re-fueling station of some kind. But what could it be doing here in the middle of nowhere? It resembles human military objects before the Humans met the council, bulky, ugly looking and no care for decoration. The Turian Captain was no idiot; he was one of the captains who fought against humans at Human-Turian war. After the war he studied humanities history and found out many things about them. This object could be even before they found the element zero. But how can that be, the Captain frowned at the thought that station didn't have any EEZO on it, not even a trace, did the human built something that can travel space without EEZO. But that's not possible no species can travel space without EEZO. Even if the human could it's certainly not hundred years ago. According to their history they didn't even have space-ships that far back in the time.

"Contact the Spirits Intention, inform them that we found the fuel" the captain ordered his comm. officer "Tell them we can vent the excess hit as soon as we refuel. And order the Kodiaks to collect the fuel"

The bridge became flurry with activity. Suddenly one of the crew members yelled to the captain.

"Captain, I'm detecting a weird transmission from this planet's moon"

"What kind of transmission? Is it a living being?"

"No sir. This transmission is similar to a relay but weaker. It seems like it is coming from inside the planet"

"Do you mean it's a mass relay?"

"It could be possible; it has the right frequency and bandwidth but weaker, maybe due to being buried inside a moon"

"Mass relay burred in side a moon! That can't be possible, could it?"

"Not necessarily buried, sir. The relay IS the moon. It seems it was covered in ice, maybe due to not being used for a long time."

"You could've said that instead officer." The captain said with annoyance in his voice." Can you activate it?'

"Yes sir. It will be active when we send the activation code. Do you want me to do it now?"

"No, I'm not sure Captain Cacia would like that. Get the "Spirit's Intention" online, I want to talk to him"

A few minutes later Captain Cacia's hologram came online. He seemed unhappy for some reason.

"What do you want Captain. I don't want to hear any trouble about the fueling." Captain Cacia said with a frown on his face.

"Not about the fueling, Captain. But why are you so upset" The Turian Captain's mandible flared.

"Hierarchy navy is getting closer, my ships sensors detected a FTL transmission to the last system we left. They will be here in a matter of hours"

"It seems really concerning. But not to worry, my crew detected a dormant relay here. If we activate it now it would be ready for transmission in an hour. We could use it to escape." The captain explained

"THE BATARIANS NEVER ESCAPES, CAPTAIN. Never forget that. We are simply retreating because we are out numbered" Captain Cacia gritted his teeth to calm himself down. "Now what about this Relay, do you know where it leads?"

"No Captain. We don't have any way of knowing that. But seeing the circumstances we don't have a choice. We will have to take the risk"

"What about the navy, won't they follow us through the relay?"

"No sir, I'm sure they would die first before opening a relay without the council's permission and it would take at least three days to receive orders from the citadel from this system, which would be enough time for us to repair our ships. And out run them to the terminus systems." The turian Captain said with an amusement in his voice."

"Is that so? All right, proceed as you may and collect as much fuel as you can on the process."

"Yes, Captain"

The transmission cut off. A few minutes later the Luna Moth sent the activation signal to the relay, and another few seconds later the relay activated with a violent force, breaking the small moon and throwing planet shards in every direction. The explosion violently shook the Luna Moth, its sensors started to get haywire. A large chunk of ice nearly hit the Luna Moth. The bridge was on disarray, the crew of the ship never expected this much of destruction. Usually when a buried relay activates it first cracks its cover then with an expect able explosion. But never in thousand of years of history was recorded that a relay outright explodes a planet.

"Report" shouted the captain

"Sir, our sensors are picking up really high energy level, it's off the charts and rising" said the officer, "If we don't shut off our energy sensors they might get fried"

"All right, do it. I don't want to go blind here. Keep visual sensors online"

"Receiving transmission from the "Spirits Intention". Captain Cacia wants to talk to you, sir" said the comm. officer.

"Patch him through" ordered the captain

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO CAPTAIN. I TOLD YOU TO ACTIVATE THE RELAY NOT BLAST IT WITH TORPEDOS" The Captain was furious. It almost seemed like he was shaking with rage, "NOW THANKS TO YOU WE LOST OUR ONLY SENSOR THAT CAN DETECT ENERGY. THE TURIANS WILL BE ON TO US IN A MATTER OF AN HOUR"

"Calm down Cacia. It wasn't our fault. This relay isn't normal. But thanks to the explosion the planetoids we needed to remove scattered so we can use it as soon as we refuel and vent the heat. We would be able to get away before the Hierarchy arrives."

"Do it fast Captain, my ship will be there in a few minutes. I want my ship at its best as soon as possible." Captain Cacia said gritting his teeth and trying to calm down.

The turian Captain nodded and cut off the transmission. He started to bark orders to the crew while continuing to sit on his command chair.

"From the visual it seems like the energy stabilized, sir. It might be safe for us to get the energy sensors online." Said the asari CO of the ship

"No, I'm not taking any risk. Send all the Kodiaks to collect the fuel and see if there's a planet we can vent heat." The captain ordered.

The asari CO nodded and proceeded to the Hanger to send the Kodiaks

"Lieutenant, did you find out anything about the relay" asked the Captain

"Captain, I think it is a primary relay, sir" said the Lieutenant "We're getting really high energy reading from it. And there's something weird about it"

"Well, I figured out that much…no thanks to you. Tell me something I don't know" said him with annoyance in his voice.

The Lieutenant got a little embarrassed. He coughed to clear his throat.

"Sir, it seems that the relay doesn't have quantum shield. Its weird but it almost seems like its using energy as its shield. And according to its usage log the last time it was used was only two hundred years ago as a receiver. If I have to guess the fuel depot came from this relay sir."

"But how can that be possible that station looks like human made and two hundred years ago the human species didn't even invented space fairing vessels."

"Don't ask me, captain. I am not expert in human."

"Could this relay lead us to human space?"

"Not likely. In this part of space it is not logical to have a primary relay to their area. Besides the energy this relay is giving out it can take us to the other side of the galaxy easily."

"Great, carry on"

Fifteen minutes later the Luna Moth received a transmission from one of its Kodiaks

"Captain, this is lieutenant Vorcia. I believe I've found a planet to vent heat, but there's something weird about it."

"This whole system is weird lieutenant, just get to the point"

"Yes sir. It seems this planet was habitable. But somehow it lost its integrity. Almost AL of its entire surface turned into glass. Primary scanning suggests it was due to extreme heat. But it still has a few non-glassed islands and low amount of water. This planet has enough atmospheres left for us to get raid of the heat problem. And there's Gas giant we can use to discharge our static energy, it's the second planet towards the sun from here.".

"Nice work, Lieutenant. Return back, so we can inspect your findings,"

An hour later the pirate ships were floating beside the relay. The "Spirits Intention" joined the Frigate twenty five minutes ago. And Five minutes ago their sensors picked up Ships in the system. Luckily they were at the edge of the system, so even if they detected the pirate ships it would take at least another ten minutes for them to reach here.

"Well Captain, what are you waiting for? Activate the relay" the batarian captain said through his transmission to the turian captain.

"Of course, But you do realize that the moment we activate the relay they will pinpoint our position. And there's no telling that they won't follow us."

"No choice, Captain. Even if we stay here we will still get caught. You go first, I'll follow you"

And so the pirate ships activated the relay and blasted away to unknown..

**Alright, that's chapter 2. Next one won't come up soon, i think. i'll have to visit my Grand-parents, but i'll try to write the chapter. Now, more pressing matter... a guest reviewed that my grammars aren't that good. That could be true, English isn't my first language. So i have trouble useing it. I won't look for Beta readers, but if any one volunteers i would be happy. "bujian" and "hornet07" addressed the sweat drops... well i really don't have much knowledge on vocabulary (slept through class). bujian gave me some words instead, so I'll try those. To "Shi-woon" and "Dur'id the Druid": Thanks for reviewing, but no fight in this chapter, but the next chap will have a small "ship to ship" combat. And reviews are NICE, so THANKS FOR REVIEWING (if you do).**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

**Present Day:**

LT. Commander Catherine was furious; she just wanted to chew off the commander's head. The moment they came out of the slip-stream they were hit by a chunk of a planetoids at least the size of a destroyer, it was just Luck that saved the entire ship and its crew and the fact that it was made of ice only made her madder. What if it was an asteroid? At the velocity they came out of slip-space, if it was an asteroid the ship wouldn't have survived. The ship's hull was barely holding. And the commander had the audacity to accuse her for that. When she pointed out that he was the one who plotted the course, he simply brushed it of saying that he didn't detect any 'planet chunks' when he gave the order two days ago. And that was an hour ago; hopefully he won't inform the Command about this. If he did, Catharine would have been screwed again, but this time she would be court-marshaled for endangering the lives of more than a thousand ship crew and a ship. It's better to be grounded in a cabin than court marshaled. She might loose her carrier over this. Bur how did a chunk of ice get in their way anyway, Ice doesn't actually float around in space, they just coat objects that float around the space. Her face got even darker, when she started to think about the solar systems history. A couple of hundred years ago when the first war against the insurgents was carried out, there was a battle in this system. It wasn't anything extraordinary but a few ships and a refueling station just vanished, no slip-space distortion was detected. When the insurrectionists were driven out, the UNSC conducted an investigation but came up with nothing. Since then the system was abandoned till the H-C war. When the insurrectionists heard about the covenant, a portion of them fled here.

"Lt. Commander…do you hear me, ma'am" shouted the ship board AI

"Huh…what?" Catharine Brock out of her daze

"I said, The Commander ordered you to report to the bridge, our sensors detected those ships and the space station."

"What! We did! Where are they?"

"One of the ships is around the third planet from the Sun and the other one is about eighteen hundred thousand kilometers from our star-Bord. The space-station is orbiting the 12th planet from the sun. Commander Nathan ordered other ships to capture the smaller ship"

"What! Already, did he even negotiate with them?" The Lt. Commander asked in a surprised voice.

"He sure did, commander. But it seems that they pissed him off somehow. We are engaging the larger one"

"How long do we have?" Catherine hurried to suit up

"Six minutes till weapon range. If you didn't daze off, you would've gotten to the bridge earlier."

When the Lt. Commander came out of her cabin a siren started to blear. Andy's voice could be heard. She heard him announcing everyone to get to their battle stations. She rushed through the corridors of the ship to the bridge. She could feel the ship accelerating. Her mind was at disarray, Commander Nathan may be an ass-hole but he is one of the few captains who don't get provoked easily. And as long as she can remember, from child-hood he was never the one to start a fight, yes, he pisses people off. But when they get defensive, he backs off. It could be either he was cowardly or too lazy to do that. Academy years were the same; he never did anything unnecessary or did anything to make him stand out among his associates. Even in active duty in the UNSC he always tried to avoid any kind of confrontation. He got this far because he plays dirty in a battle and ended up loosing the least. He rarely gets offensive but when he does, he gives of an impression of an evil person who can exploit anyone's weakness, use it and bring them to their knees. And most of all, he never picks a fight if it doesn't benefit him somehow.

Picking fights with unknown aliens would be the last thing he would do…..if it doesn't help him progress. When she reached the bridge she saw the Commander was leaning on the console, analyzing something. Andy notified him about Catharine's arrival. The Commander turned around to talk to her.

"You took your sweet time to get here, didn't you, Commander?" he said with a sly smirk on his face.

"Five minutes is barely a sweet time, sir." She said with a straight face

"Not when we're in a battle, Lt. Commander"

"Right Sir, but I hope you have a good explanation to attack an unknown faction." There was a slight anger in her voice "Because if you don't, High-Com might skin you alive."

"Don't you think I know that?" he almost growled those word out "But, Don't worry I have a good explanation. Besides I don't do anything that doesn't help UNSC."

"More like 'my self'" Catherine mumbled out

"I heard that." Nathan shouted

"What do you need me for Commander?" Catherine said with a smirk

"Ah, yes. Get to the hanger and pick enough marines to board a heavy frigate." The commander ordered. "And equip all of them with those Fence shields we got from the base."

-New Tech Description -

**Energy Shields are one of the newer editions in UNSC military. After the Covenant loyalists were defeated most of the Kig-Yar and Yanme-e joined the Noe-covenant. A few years after that, to improve relationship between the Neo-Covenant and the UEG, the Covenant traded a lot of their old techs for resources with the UNSC. The covenant weapons still blew up on the scientist's faces but recently they got some idea on how those weapons work. Right now they are even trying to build their own type of plasma weapons. But they did manage to produce cheaper shields. Although the Neo-Covenants were unwilling to share offensive techs, they were more than happy to share defensive techs. **

**These Energy shields were directive shields like the Kig-Yar's, but instead of being round these were rectangular. The shields were made actually to cover a soldier long enough to let them fire during a suppressive situations. The strongest shields can take up to six plasma grenades simultaneously or two direct hit from a Fuel-rod cannon. These shields comes in two sizes, one is heavier, used by the regular marines like medieval Mantles and the smaller ones are carried by special units such as ODST or special marine units. The larger shields which are called Barricade Shields are 3 feet wide and 4.5 feet tall, the marines who carry these, have a special power generator dedicated to the shield on his back. The generator is connected with the shield with a wire through the marines Armor. Stronger shields can hold power up to ten minutes of heavy fire even after the power from the generator gets cut off. The marines who carry these shields are generally called Shield-Marines. Shield-Marines come in a squad of three, they carry up to 10 grenades and a M6D or M6G pistol each. Mostly these Shield-Marine squads are assigned with another two regular marine squads. Regular marines normally protect the Shield-Marines against sneak attacks, grenades that could fly over the shields or heavy weapons directly aimed at them while taking cover behind the shields. The Shield-Marines wears an exoskeleton that increases their strength enough to lift and carry the heavy generator easily. The exoskeleton also draws power from the generator. But this exoskeleton also slows them down. The Generator is always mounted on the exoskeleton. These shield marines are normally deployed in plain areas, as support of a boarding party or when defending a ship or structure.**

**The Lighter shields which are called Fence Shield are used by ODST squad. Fence Shields are 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet long. It doesn't have a special power generator but it can regenerate on its own. These shields can only protect against medium weapon fire or melee attacks for a small amount of time. So its main usage is to buy enough time to reach to a more reliable cover. During non-combat situation Fence Shield takes 20 to 30 seconds to start regenerating and takes full minute to regenerate completely. These shields are generally used when coming out of drop-ships, drop-pods/H.E.V in the middle of enemy gunfire. **

**In head on combat the Fence shield doesn't provide much support but they are effective enough to brush off an ambush if the wearer can come out of his/hers stupor. On the other hand the Barricade Shields have excellent combat effectiveness against mid to long distance engagement; they work almost like a Brick wall except stronger and portable. But because of being slow to move these shields are extremely vulnerable against ambushes or short-range attacks. They also aren't good if the enemy has higher ground. A shield-Marine can also put the shield down, but they can't move away from it farther than six feet without severing its wire from the generator. The marines are allowed to leave these if the enemy is close enough. **

-New Tech Description End-

"All of them, Commander! Isn't it too much?" Catherine was curious

"We don't know what we're going to face, Catherine" the commander nodded his head side ways. "It's better safe then sorry."

"CAPTAIN, I'M PICKING UP HIGH ENERGY OUTPUT. THEY MAY HAVE FIRED."

One of the lieutenants cried.

"WHAT! WE'RE NOT EVEN IN VISUAL" The commander shouted. "ENGAGE EVASIVE MANEUVERS."

The whole ship immediately went on red alert. Red light started to flare all over the ship. The Dread of the night stared to engage evasive maneuver but being twice as large then a frigate it needed more time, which it lacked.

"IMPACT IN TWO SECONDS! EVERYONE BRACE YOURSELVES" shouted the shipboard AI.

"Shit…" was all Commander Nathan could say before the ship got hit…

**Author's Note:**** Allright I screwed up. I promissed a Ship Battle in this chapter, but spending almost two months at my Grandparents took away all of my creativity away. I wrote this chapter before even uploading the 2nd, i planned to edit it but got waaaaaayy too lazy. so i won't try to kill anyone even if you readers flame me. Sorry for the late update, even i am not sure about this chapter (could be my worst creation). second one WILL BE better and be uploaded faster. So read and review... i feel so joyous when i see review numbers go up... heh heh heh (and yes visitors and visits count too).**


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